My Assistant Laur’en Jordan won her first Best Junior Hanlder award last weekend at the 16th Annual Siberian Husky Club of Greater Oklahoma City Independent Specialty. 6 Junior Handlers competed for this top honor. Laur’en showed Zvevda’s Cosmic Ray, our puppy dog. She also showed him in Puppy Sweepstakes earning 3rd place and in the regular 9-12 month puppy dog classes winning 1st place. CONGRATULATIONS Ren for winning your first BEST JUNIOR with less than a year of showing under your belt!
Archive for February, 2009
First trail ride of 2009
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
I was honored to take part in a Jordan tradition and went on the first trail ride of the year. My foot fought this, screaming – don’t get on a horse – once up in the saddle – it screamed even more. However they put me up on Coco who had one speed and lived up to only having one speed – plus the couple beers I had helped! We had 9 of us saddled up and we had a nice relaxing afternoon!
Thanks for pushing me! I needed a change of scenery!
why do we own a sofa
Friday, February 20th, 2009
As you can see – our sofa isn’t for human comfort, but for our dog comfort! Where do we sit??? On the floor – hahahaha. That is why we have a double recliner for the humans and the sofa for the dogs – unless they get jealous and join us on the recliner (which they do do)
aging like a fine wine
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
This is our over 9 yr old Multiple Best of Breed winner CH Rainbow’s Vodka on Ice RN CGC. He is warming up with Lauren Moore – local junior handler. It just amazes me how beautiful a properly built dog can move, even in their senior citizen days. Rocky will be attending specialty shows this spring to compete in the veteran classes! He just loves to show!
Great Weekend for Cynara Ridgebacks!
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Feb. 14 & 15, 2009 – Tremendous Valentine’s Weekend
Six of the seven pups from Litter A were in action over the weekend. First up was Titan in Boise, ID who has been working very hard in obedience classes. Saturday was test day. The instructor put him and his hard working owner, Debbie through the requirements to graduate from Level II obedience class. Titan passed each exam and won praise from the instructor who is amazed at the concentration and skills coming from a year old Ridgeback. Titan is also attending weekly agility classes and periodically goes to sheep herding lessons.
Stella headed off to the show circuit this weekend and came home with two Best of Breed wins and two points. These wins put her ahead of her sisters in the race to be the first to earn an AKC show championship. Stella now has 7 points with one major win.
The most fun this weekend was taking the other 4 pups – Astra, Lucas, Scuba and Trouble to a lure coursing test/trial for their first attempt to earn their Junior Courser (JC) title. Saturday in Oklahoma was cold with 10-18 mph north wind gusts which made the temperature feel well below freezing but the weather didn’t slow anyone down, much less the dogs. Scuba was the first to the starting line and stayed on the lure like she was tied to it. Next up was our big boy, Lucas. He immediately spotted the lure and knew it was his target. Lucas bounded, jumped and ran with plenty of enthusiasm all around the course. Astra turned in a fiend as soon as she saw the other dogs chasing the “bunny”. It is a good thing she is a standard sized Ridgeback and her owner is extra strong. She took off after the lure like a rocket and never slowed down while barking the entire way. Trouble wasn’t quite as excited as her siblings but she did her job and never looked back for reassurance. Day 1 was a success with all 4 Ridgebacks earning the first leg of two for their JCs.
Sunday at the lure coursing field started off with each of the pups passing their 2nd JC leg to earn their first official AKC title – Junior Courser. As a Junior Course, they were allowed to run in the open class at the Tulsa Sighthound Ass. trial. Seven Ridgebacks were entered which was enough to make the race a 3 point major. Trouble ran in the first heat against a Dual Champion Ridgeback. It was a great chance for her to score well but she decided to show off by tearing off the line first but then slowed down and let the other dogs catch her. She bounded along with them for part of the course and then kicked in the afterburners to finish first. The judges were unimpressed and ruled she was coursing the other dogs instead of the lure and excused her. We were very disappointed and thought it terribly unfair since she finished first but you can’t argue with the judges. Astra ran in the 2nd heat and earned a score of 74 which turned out to be the highest score of the day in Ridgebacks. Lucas and Scuba went head to head in the 3rd heat. Scuba’s focus on the lure and smaller size helped her beat Lucas who was starting to tire a bit. The final race had two heats. Scuba tied for first in her heat while Astra blew the socks off her competitors when they decided to take a few short cuts. After all of the math was done the Cynara Litter A pups did extremely well.
Lucas 4th place (score 138) earning 1 leg toward his Senior Courser title
Scuba 2nd place (score 145) earning 1 SC leg and 1 point toward her Field Ch. title
Astra 1st place and Best of Breed (score 147) earning 1 SC leg & a 3 point major toward her FC
Other Uses for coffee filters
Saturday, February 14th, 2009Coffee Filters are not just for
making Coffee…
1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China. Separate your good dishes by putting coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to
prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11. Prevent a popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows?? Use strips of coffee filters.
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, french fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks
out all the grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great razor nick fixers.
15. Use as a bowl for microwave popcorn… It will absorb the butter.
Westminster Brag
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
This is a big huge congratulation to Dennis Akins and Suzanne Macre for Ch Down Datrail Hunting Thrills CD “Thrillers” Best of Breed at the 2009 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Thriller is out of our Desi (National BISS Multiple Group Winning CH Pizzazz Topped with Desire). While I am not a breeder of Thriller, I still feel a connection to him and am proud at Dennis’s and Suzanne’s accomplishments with him. Just an FYI – Thriller was the 2009 #4 Breed Curly and the #1 All Breed Curly. Last year all of us attended Westminster and Desi was Best of Opposite Sex and Thriller was awarded first Award of Merit.
Thank you for allowing me to brag for the whole Down the Trail Curly Coated Retreivers!
Did you see that Hippo?
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Frodo’s first dog show travel weekend
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
Every puppy has a first dog show weekend and now Frodo is having his first experience. We are down in Hutto, TX for a Great Dane Speciality and brought Frodo along. He got to be at a show site, sleep in a hotel bed, and he even got to play with his brother and sister (Bonner and Jacque) We are making sure he isn’t stressed and is having a grand ole time – that way he understands that dog shows are a fun activity!
This one’s for Jessica!
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
OK OK, so for anyone who even knows me slightly, you know of my foot surgery, 7 weeks non weight bearing with a cast, and now physical therapy. And, for any of you who have ever done physical therapy – you know your excerises are dealing with very minute details, working muscles, tendons, ligaments, all of it to get your body back into form. One day I was telling Jessica about my marble excerise where I pick up marbles with my toes and drop them in a bowl. Very hard if your foot was immobile. Anyways, Jessica laughed and the vision of picking up marbles just keeps her giggling! Well, today, at physical therapy, I saw this page that was cut out of one of those daily calendars and I laughed and laughed and laughed and took this photo with my cell phone!
SOOOO – does this mean I am a redneck????????
BIG HUGE GRIN!
